Chapter Text
Karai came to awareness with a looming sense of dread. She felt soft carpet underneath her knees. Her nose twitched as she took in the scents of incense and tea. Soft piano music drifted in from another room.
Every sense told her that she was in someone’s home.
Karai hadn’t felt the peace of a home in over five hundred years.
In the best case scenario, this was a new dirty trick of Shredder’s. The worst…
“Hamato Karai? Can you hear me?”
She looked up in horror into the eyes of an old man, leaning heavily on a bo staff that towered so high above him, it couldn’t have been made for his use.
“What have you done?”
Sho fell to his knees in what was meant to be a bow, but a coughing fit overcame him on the way down and instead he splayed out on the floor, wheezing and gasping.
Karai dropped her rage, rushing to his side and helping him to sit up. Unable to speak through the coughing, Sho slapped his chest over his heart where the Hamato crest was painted onto his shirt.
“Breathe, please, there will be time to explain later. Where is your caretaker, your children? Surely you cannot be-”
Sho shook his head, clinging tight to her arm.
“Last… Yoshi… n- need.”
“Shh, I have you, I have you. Please, just breathe.”
Karai pulled him into her arms, frowning at how easily she could do so, and carried him to the couch. She propped him up with pillows and kneeled to meet his eyes.
The coughing slowly stopped and he sighed, laying back.
“I am sorry, Karai-sama. I would not have brought you back here if I thought there was another way. The Hamato are dying, and with us goes the world’s only chance against the Shredder, against the Foot. Yoshi, my grandson, he has betrayed the clan. He has betrayed the family. He is all that is left now. You must find him, bring him home. I would go, but… I don’t have much time left. I’m far too weak to travel. Please, for the world, you must.”
Karai frowned, taking his hand.
“Do you not understand the great danger you have brought upon the world in bringing me here? I was the only thing keeping the Shredder from reaching his full strength. If I am free, then he is as well.”
Sho squeezed her hand back as tight as he could.
“The Foot has only grown as the Hamato have grown weak. They have alchemists on their side now, powerful yokai, mystic warriors. They will not rest until they have brought back the Shredder. Please, I cannot- I cannot let my daughter’s sacrifice be in vain. I don’t have much time left, I’m sorry. I know this is unfair to ask of you, I would not ask if I had a choice.”
“Do you… know?”
“Weeks. A month at the most. Yoshi doesn’t know, I can’t get in touch with him. For all anyone knows, he just vanished. I’m afraid, Karai-sama. I don’t know what’s become of him, I don’t know if he’s been hurt. …But he’s alive. He must be. I would know if he weren’t.”
Karai sighed and pulled away her hand.
“I hope you are right. But we both need rest, now. I will watch over you, Sho-san. …Despite the circumstances, family is something we both need right now. Sleep, please. I will be here.”
Sho made a token attempt to argue, but after Karai leveled him with a concerned glare that looked far too much like Atsuko’s, he allowed himself to be helped into his bed.
Karai smiled as she tucked him in, glad that she could make sure he was comfortable if nothing else.
On his bedside was a framed photograph, Sho, a small boy she presumed to be Yoshi, and a young woman with visible eye bags smiled at the camera, cherry blossoms falling to the ground around their feet in piles.
“Yoshi… wherever you are, I will find you, I swear. …Please be safe.”